OT - Anyone watch Hatfields & McCoys on History Channel?

[AirFlacco]

Cal Ripken's pal Kevin Costner did a great job with his new show for the
History Chann. As usual it was mostly accurate although not entirely so
but it gives us a great look into history on one of the greatest family feuds in
American history that cost the lives of 15 people over decades of feuding that started over land dispute, a stolen pig and a Romeo and Juliet romance
amongst the warring familes.

These families really put the meaning into the word "Hillbilly." Both are
mean and arrogant. McCoy was actually religious but vindictive. He lost the most when the Hatfields raided his home killing his wife, daughter and remaining sons.

Three other sons were killed by the Hatfields after they killed one of their clan. The stolen pig part was funny as there was a jury trial with 12 members of the jury - 6 from each family. However, one of the MCCoys worked for Hatfield in his lumber business and was the deciding vote in his favor. Talk about vindictiveness, McCoy got him too
later killing him.

Hatfield usually got the best of McCoy but lost most of his gang when 9 members including his son got prison terms for life and 1 was hanged who killed McCoy's daughter but he was autistic. After that the feud ended as both men moved to different areas.
McCoy lived a near destitute life. Hatfield had land and money but had to sell most of
the land to pay for the trial of his son and gang members. It went all the way to the
Supreme Court because bounty hunters went into West Virginia. The guv of West
Virginia called up the national guard and almost invaded Kentucky.

You can't feel sorry for any of them.

A few years ago the descendents got together on the TV game show
Family Feud as the Hatfields won. They had a family re-union attended
by thousands of descendants called the family reunion of the millennium.

The History Channel is playing it every night if you missed it.

[NCRAVEN]

I watched it, it was pretty good. I thought the first episode was the best.

My only complaints: 1) I felt like they rushed into the feud and didn't build up the hate that led to it. 2) Also felt like they made it seem like the McCoy's were the victims in this.

At the end of the day though it was a good mini-series.

[AirFlacco]

Exactly right. The movie rushed into it and didn't explain the real origins, just the pig
account and the kids getting married. It definitely made you feel sorry for the McCoys. Like I posted, Hatfield usually got the best of him as his family was wiped out but he
was a mean mutha ficker. Hatfield and McCoy were in the lumber business
but the McCoys weren't too smart and failed and lived near destitution. Hatfield was and was business savvy and aggressive. Each had 13 kids-lol.

They were actually pals during the Civil War actually saving each other's lives til
Hatfield deserted. Bill Paxton, the actor who played McCoy didn't think that part was
correct because the land dispute was before the war. The actors and costumes were
so great I didn't even know Tom Berenger was in the movie. He played Jim Vance who
killed the Hatfield who fought for the Yankees. I had to look real hard to see who
Costner was. I've seen all these guys films although I'm not too familiar with Paxton
who out-performed them all.

Also, the town wasn't even there at that time. It didn't come til the late 1880s or 1890s
when the rail road and mines came. Before there were no roads, just paths paved out
by the indians centuries before.

The industrial revolution finally caught up with
Kentucky and West Va. As mentioned Hatfield had to sell his land to pay for
his family's legal expenses. The atty who re-started the feud fell in with the rail road
and GOPs who didn't like the southerners. He got some of that land. It also had oil
and coal that was just coming into play. Hatfield had a lot on his land that he sold
and didn't even know anything about oil.

Those socials in the movie were held in open fields. There was no saloon for the fights but people drank, argued and killed each other. These were really low life people and Kostnerdid a great job of bringing it out.

Then Jim Vance of the Hatfields killed a McCoy who fought for the North and returned
home. That was brought out.

Hatfield also gyped the atty out of 5,000 acreas of land. He got even as he gained
wealth in Kentucky and got the guv to send bounty hunters across the state line or
river to capture the Hatiflelds.

Hatfield planned the raid on McCoy's house but was sick and couldn't go. He demanded
that no one get hurt but old Uncle Wall was so mean he killed the women and kids
inside. McCoy got out the back and got away. Cottontop Mounts, the autistic boy
was hanged for killing McCoy's daughter but the Hatfields tried to say he really didn't
know what he was doing to be hanged.

The families are supposed to be pals now but not everyone. I mentioned Vance above
who helped start the feud killing the Yankee veteran. The cemetry where all of the
McCoys are buried that were killed in the raid is owned by a Vance today. He owns
all the land around it and won't let anyone see the cemetry.

The McCoys tried to open it to the public and sued but failed. One person is still
holding a grudge.

[wickedsolo]

Loved it.

I'm not a huge Kevin Costner fan, but I thought this was a great role for him.

[NCRAVEN]

Loved it.

I'm not a huge Kevin Costner fan, but I thought this was a great role for him.

I agree, typically to me he is more of a reader than an actor, but he did very well in this.

[AirFlacco]

He's not the greatest actor but made some historic films. Bull Durham was the best
baseball movie ever made about a minor league team in Duke country and a groupie
who bangs them all-lol.

He met Cal on that set when he hired him as an advisor for it and another baseballl
movie he made about an old pitcher who throws a perfect game before retiring.
He's a great golf fan making Tin Cup which was very boring.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094812/


Dances with Wolves is another historic film. That was the first film that had you
rooting for the indians to kill all the soldiers. Costner usually gets his facts straight
but not so in that one because the tribe he portrayed was one of the most ruthless
tribes on the plains. Even the Sioux respected them. They weren't as peaceful
as Costner made them out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/

Wyatt Earp was perhaps the best movie made about Earp and one of the greatest
westerns ever. He got his facts straight on that won. After the gun fight at the OK
Corrall scene, he turns and says it only took 12 seconds. The old Burt Lancaster
movie made it look like all day.

That movie inspired me to visit Tombstone when I went to a Ravens game in
Arizona. Everyone travels up to the Grand Canyon and I went to Tombstone-lol
where they have a re-enactment. Met a cute girl from Maryland in a store there
and bought some stuff. I was into line dancing back then and she told me to go
the saloon that the Earps owned and is still in use today. She met me there for
a good steak. I go all the way out west and score with a girl from Baltimore-lol.

I applied for a job at Ft Huachuka-sp out there and didn't get it. Glad I didnt.
Nothing but desert out there. Nearest beach is 9 hours west in San Diego.
I gotta be near the ocean.




This was another great one. Chilling, just chilling how he steals his friend's wife]
and what Anthony Quinn does to the wife. Great ending.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100485/


This was one of the best espionage movies ever. He plays a mole, a US Naval officer
for the KGB reaching high into the gov't. Another great ending.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093640/


Costner said he got into acting actually sitting next to Richard Burton on a plane when
he was in college and Burton really encouraged him to get into acting. His first role
was a corpse in the movie The Big Chill. All you see are his dead feet.

This is also a landmark film with William Hurt, Glenn Close and Jeff Goldbloom. Tom Berenger was in that one too so they go way back. The sound track has all the great Mowtown hits of the 60s and 70s like I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE and I SECOND THAT EMOTION.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085244/

[Irish Raven]

Loved it

I will admit I watched Episode 1 twice
Was struggling a bit to keep up and see who was who. Character overload

Went off to read the wikipedia article to get a background on it
Seems the area and the trails attract tourists now, bringing people into the area which is good


An excellent production overall

[wickedsolo]

I really like the emphasis on western's the past couple of years. There have been some good ones.

The remake of True Grit was fantastic.

[HoustonRaven]

I have to fly to Denver this week.

Looks like I am going to have to check iTunes for it so I can watch it on my flight.

[Irish Raven]

3:10 to Yuma was an enjoyable film

Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster

Great story
And loved the soundtrack, it's up on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g63GNjWdf0Q

[AirFlacco]

Yea, that was a great flick except for the ending. Roger Ebert said a long time ago that
the Hollywood formula for a good action film was the good guy vs the bad guy and the good guy always wins and never dies.

Now it's the opposite in many if not most films and in The Departed, everyone dies.

You leave the theater with a bad taste in your mouth.

BTW, my brother's nephew is a writer for one of the CSI series. He graduated from college 4 years ago majoring in film making. He wants to be a producer, so he goes to Hollywood and moves into a house with 4 other wannabes 2 blocks from the beach.

He lands a job as an errand boy for one of the CSI series. All he did was run errands
for the producer's staff. Then last year the producer made him an assistant editor and
this year he wrote his first show. He wrote the entire script and made a cameo appearance.

The family went nuts when they saw him on TV. He's on his way to really big money.

He won a contest in college producing a movie. He had his own budget and everything.
After he won the college sent him to a film writing school and paid for it.

Now he's on his way to big bucks writing for CSI. His name is Gregory Widemann.
Remember it, he will be big one day.

[StingerNLG]

I watched it, it was pretty good. I thought the first episode was the best.

My only complaints: 1) I felt like they rushed into the feud and didn't build up the hate that led to it. 2) Also felt like they made it seem like the McCoy's were the victims in this.

At the end of the day though it was a good mini-series.

Being a descendant from the McCoy family (my great grandmother was the middle daughter of the remaining 3 towards the end of the movie), my grandmother and dad used to tell me these stories and showed me pictures and such. It's not so much that the McCoys were victims, but they had the deck stacked against them. The Hatfields has no problem killing people whereas Randolph McCoy did his best to have the Hatfields arrested and tried. Even after they killed his three sons.

Impressively the mini-series was more accurate than most movies. Obviously some embellishment here and there. But mostly true story.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

[NCRAVEN]

Being a descendant from the McCoy family (my great grandmother was the middle daughter of the remaining 3 towards the end of the movie), my grandmother and dad used to tell me these stories and showed me pictures and such. It's not so much that the McCoys were victims, but they had the deck stacked against them. The Hatfields has no problem killing people whereas Randolph McCoy did his best to have the Hatfields arrested and tried. Even after they killed his three sons.

Impressively the mini-series was more accurate than most movies. Obviously some embellishment here and there. But mostly true story.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

That's pretty cool.

Reading up on the feud, it definitely seemed like Randall was a victim being that he wanted to resolve things civilly (relatively speaking), I guess my comment was more directed at the McCoy family, the ones that killed and fought back